BLACK PEPPER, Piper nigrum

Latin name: Piper nigrum

English names: Black pepper, peppercorn, white pepper, green pepper

Sanskrit name: Maricha

Indian name: Kali mirch

Medicinal parts used: Fruit

Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is a small drupe approximately five millimetres in diameter, dark red when fully mature, containing a single seed. Peppercorns, and the powdered pepper derived from grinding them, may be described as black pepper, white pepper, green pepper, and very often simply pepper. Black pepper is native to South India and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Black pepper is also cultivated in the Coorg area of Karnataka.

Therapeutic use:

The extract of Black pepper is effective in increasing nutrient absorption with a dose several times lower than that commonly used to bio enhance blood levels of a drug.

Black pepper is often used to warm the body, and to help in improving the performance of the digestive system, by stimulating its functioning.

It is also used in the treatment of other disorders such as nausea, to treat all kinds of stomach ache, to treat abdominal flatulence and abdominal bloating; it is also used in the treatment of constipation, and to treat people with a lack of appetite.

As an herbal remedy, the essential oil from the black pepper is used to reduce the symptoms associated with rheumatic pain and to treat the painful sensations associated with toothaches and other dental problems.

It is also known to have antiseptic and antibacterial actions, and they are used in bringing about a reduction in the temperature of fever affected individuals.

It is also used as an aphrodisiac, febrifuge, used in asthma and chronic cold and flu.

In Ayurveda, it is used orally and locally to treat sexually transmitted diseases.